Pension- to transfer or not?

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If anyone can advise I would appreciate it so much
I have a pension from my 10 years working in local government. Last year I began working for a university and now pay into the USS pension scheme. I don't know if I should be transferring my local government pension over to USS Or if I should keep them separate. Is there any way I can find out what's best without having to pay for financial advice?

Thank you

You need to read the legacy pension provisions and what the forecast is. All public sector schemes are uplifted according to inflation, but some have different early retirement provisions. Ask for a pension transfer forecast from USS as well.

USS is a very good scheme. Are they still offering a final year salary pension for new joiners? I would put the lot into USS. I wouldn’t move a local government pension unless it was going into a decent scheme and USS is good.

I assume these are all defined benefit schemes so you really do need to get advice as they’ll be valuable.

are you sure you can transfer one to the other?

I would suggest that if you have already been working there for a year, you'll have missed the deadline to action a pension transfer. This would be the first thing to check.

USS is much much less good than it used to be; absolutely no final salary link any more.
Definitely get quotes but it may not be best to transfer.

There are some really knowledgeable people on the MoneySavongExpert pensions board.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/pensions-annuities-retirement-planning

Transferring one defined benefit pension into another might be possible, but would normally be done on the basis of “actuarial equivalence”. In other words, would be expected to leave you no better or worse off. Personally I wouldn’t expend the time in trying to figure it out (and I have worked in pensions for 30 years).

Based on my husband in a LGPS scheme and me in a USS both for past 10 years- no, don’t transfer. His is much better.

Thank you everyone, you've been so helpful especially for this early in the morning! I'll speak to USS but it sounds like it will be best to leave it where it is now.